Saturday, January 30, 2016

Oregon Woman Fired for Being Pro-life Leader

After working four years at Sparkling Palaces, a Portland small business, Harmony Daws was fired from her position as operations manager when she told her employer, and close friend, that she had become a pro-life activist and her employer had read Daws' online writings.

“What my employer did was illegal. Firing someone based on their religious or political beliefs is a civil rights violation. I’m a libertarian and I support my former employer’s right to hire and fire as she chooses. However, she could have asked for a resignation over our difference of beliefs.”-- Harmony Daws, President, Board of Directors, Oregon Right to Life

. . . her boss came to her again and told her to never mention her pro-life work. Her employer was cold and distant for the following week and a half until Friday when she fired Harmony for being a “discriminator” and for Harmony’s beliefs that she saw online, apparently including her blog and the ORTL website.

Employees who worked under Harmony varied in beliefs and lifestyles, including a Satanist, a Wiccan, a lesbian, and atheists too. Upon hearing of her firing, several of them told her they had never felt discriminated against in any way. They said she “loved everyone.” It was because of Harmony’s work running the daily operations of the company that her boss went from struggling to make payroll for three employees to a team of 14 employees with projected 2016 sales of over $500,000.

Had the situation been reversed in today’s political climate and Harmony had fired someone for their belief that abortion should be legal, it is virtually guaranteed they would have sued her for discrimination. . . .